Queen's Cross Country Invitational Report

16 Oct, 2005 -- The 2005 Queen's XC invitational was another huge success!  The women's field was the biggest in event history with 140 finishers of the 168 pre-event entries.  The men had 111 finishers of the 140 pre-event entries.  There were 14 women's teams competing and 12-men's teams.  The weather cooperated with the rain holding off although the blustery wind conditions made things challenging.  The fact that of a high quality field only 20 women broke the 20-minutes barrier and only 9 men were under 34-minutes speaks to the challenge of the course and weather conditions.

The University of Toronto won (52-points) on the women's side, very closely followed by Windsor (61-points) then Western (104-points).  The Queen's women came up big finishing fourth with 128-points well ahead of the next OUA school Waterloo with 191-points.  With only Guelph missing on the women's side, If the Queen's women can come up big once again on their home course in 2-weeks time at the OUA Championships and finish at least 5th they will earn a trip to the CIS Championships.  Based on the results of this meet that is a very realistic possibility.  Former Golden Gael Beth Wightman, now running for U of T, ran away with the meet winning handily in 18:19.97.  She was followed by Jacki Malette of Windsor in 18:52.47 and Bethaney Janzen of Western in 18:57.34.  Rookie Leslie Sexton lead the way for the Gaels with a strong 15th place finish in 19:51.04, close behind was another rookie Amy Schneeberg in 19th in 19:56.74.  Victoria Swan was the team's third finisher in 25th in 20:08.31.  Jenny Harris finally over came the cramping problems that have plagued her the last few races and was able to finish strong was the 4th scorer for the team finishing 40th in 20:36.24.  Finishing the scoring for the Gaels was Courtney Kirkby (50th in 20:55.58).  Having solid races were Charlotte Aust (52nd in 21:01.22), rookie Caitlin Hesketh (64th in 21:18.22), Ali Aasen (67th in 21:23.41) and Natalie Desimini (81st in 21:45.07).

As anticipated the Queen's men were in a battle with Western to see who would claim meet champion honours.  Western (70-points) narrowly edged Queen's (78-points) to wrestle the meet championship title away from the game Gaels.  Indicating they are not to be taken lightly at OUA's was a very strong University of Toronto squad in third with (89-points).  With the top two OUA men's team not present (Windsor and Guelph) the meet gave a good reflection of who would be battling it out for the final OUA podium spot.  OUA ALL-STAR and ALL-CANADIAN Scott Arnald of Waterloo (32:40.27) won handily over Joe Campanelli of Toronto in 33:17.35 and Queen's Alumni Spencer Morrison in 33:32.26.  Leading the way for the Gaels was 2004 OUA ALL-STAR and SECOND TEAM ALL-CANADIAN Robert Kitz in 6th place with a time of 33:41.83, substantially faster than his 34:18 last year at this meet.  Chris Nagle who continues to put together an outstanding 5th season was 8th in 33:53.76, almost a full minute faster than last year's 34:48.  Rounding out the scorers for Queen's was Kevin Dunbar (21st in 34:48.85, substantially better than his 35:15 last year), Justin Hall who had a fabulous run (26th in 35:05.53, more than a minute faster than 2004's 36:07) and Jared Thomson who made his 2005 debut (27th in 35:06.53, virtually the same as last year's 35:07 clocking).  Other Queen's athletes finishing under 36-minutes were:  Josh Smith (31st in 35:18.56), Jeff Bar (33rd in 35:25.53), Chris Brens (34th in 35:29.10, a significant improvement on his 2004 time of 36:06) and Chris van de Water (39th in 35:44.04).  With Scott Nelms unavailable to run, Travis Cummings dealing with calf cramps - Coaches Lakins and Bolton have the unenviable (or depending on your perspective, enviable) task before them to select the 2005 OUA Championship team from this incredibly deep and talented roster.

The Gaels are next in action on Fort Henry Hill, October 29, 2005 at the OUA CHAMPIONSHIPS.  It has all the hallmarks of a classic race with teams closely matched and not much separating the individual runners.  Spectators are most welcome to come out and watch... you'll be hard pressed to find a more spectator friendly course or top-notch cross country running any where.